Residents should be confident in police department’s integrity

Tuesday

Dec 30, 2008 at 6:00 AM

By Gary J. Gemme

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette recently raised several issues regarding the Worcester Police Department, Bureau of Professional Standards. The newspaperís concerns relate to internal investigations of city police officers by police officials and they ask whether these investigations are fair and thorough and whether citizens should have confidence in the police department.

I can say without hesitation that the Bureau of Professional Standards conducts fair and thorough investigations and that the public should continue to have confidence in the police departmentís internal investigative process.

The police officials who are assigned to investigate citizen complaints are highly trained and experienced investigators. These officials are tasked with the responsibility to obtain facts and information that can either exonerate the officer or support the complaint.

The threshold for sustaining a complaint is based upon the preponderance of the evidence. It is not based on innuendo or unsubstantiated allegations and it certainly isnít based upon allegations from anonymous sources published in the media.

The issues of fairness, thoroughness and confidence have been raised because of the recently released internal affairs records of a Worcester police officer.

It is disingenuous for the Telegram & Gazette to raise these concerns from the perspective of a single case file while ignoring the track record and performance of the Bureau of Professional Standards.

In fact, the real issue for the newspaper is not the Bureau of Professional Standards; it is the redaction of information and the length of time it took to produce the internal records. Since the newspaper has linked its public record request to the integrity of the internal investigative process and the Bureau of Professional Standards, it is important for the community to understand my stance on this matter.

I absolutely believe that the public has a right to information regarding a public entity. That is the reason the police department has a full-time media person and a philosophy that gives the media complete accessibility to police officers and officials.

All the local media have nearly complete and uninhibited access to information about the police department. They have patrolled with police officers and have been embedded on drug raids and warrant service.

Newspaper reporters have also attended staff and command meetings. There has not been one issue, controversial or otherwise, that the police department ducked. We have always addressed the issues head-on and we will continue to maintain that policy. In fact, we have responded to every question presented by the media regarding the handling of the public records request for internal records.

The length of time to produce these sensitive, extensive, complex records was unfortunate, but given the timing of the request and the challenges it produced, the response was reasonable. I also believe that, hyperbole aside, the media recognizes our response as such. I believe that the heart of the issue is the redaction.

That debate is simple.

The position of the newspaper is that the public has a greater right to the information than a citizen who files a complaint against a police officer has a right to privacy.

The position of the department is that a citizen who comes forward has a right, if they desire, to have that information kept confidential and the department has an obligation to protect and defend that right.

The integrity of the departmentís internal investigative process is paramount to this conviction.

The appropriate venue for deciding this matter is the courts, and if the court rules that the citizen has a diminished right and the public has a greater right, we will comply with the direction of the court.

The public confidence in the Bureau of Professional Standards will continue because of the record established over the last several years. The department during the past four years has sustained roughly three times as many complaints as it received in the preceding years.

In a number of these complaints unprecedented discipline has occurred when police officers violated the public trust. The actions taken against the small percentage of officers who violate the rules and regulations of the department has occurred because the hardworking men and women of the police department demand it and the public deserves a properly managed department.

The media will always have the last say because of their editorial control. However, fair-minded people will look at the facts and our record. They will look past all the media hype, politics of opportunity and limited-agenda activists and continue to support the hardworking members of the police department and the Bureau of Professional Standards.